Texas Tech students feel unsupported as new policies affect studies, culture Texas Tech University's new guidelines for the discussion of race and gender in course curriculum has been met with criticism from free speech groups, professors, and students alike. From future enrol...

radio.kttz.org/2026-03-19/t...

Glad to finally see some student voices represented!

The story is really so much worse than this anecdote. Heartbreaking.

Sent this to an AUSA friend earlier today and got the crying laughing emoji. Such a joke.

Me too! I teach his letters regularly at the undergrad level and the students usually enjoy them (albeit often in an eye-rolly way).

The official policy of the government of the United States of America is that they will murder anyone they want, that they will tell any lie necessary to justify that murder, and that no one who resists them has any rights they are bound to respect.
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It was a great class - came in very handy when I had to teach him on short notice two years ago!

People are quite surprised when I tell them I took a class on Lucretius with you. Not what they expect!

You truly do love to see it (or at least, I did)!

Texas Tech System restricts race and gender teaching Tech, now the second Texas public university system to add similar teaching restrictions, had earlier directed faculty to follow state and federal guidance recognizing only two sexes.

Thread: This semester at Texas Tech, our new chancellor has required a portal to be created through which a form must be submitted for every course. www.texastribune.org/2025/12/01/t...

Having just disclosed these facts in the portal, I look forward to finding out whether the Board of Regents deems this acceptable content by the time I am about halfway through the semester.

On the other hand, this is undoubtedly content that includes gender (all of the readings were written by men and many of them discuss women) and sexual orientation (Caelius is accused of being a lover of Catiline, and of course, Caelius' affair with Clodia is the centerpiece of the speech).

This semester, I am teaching a graduate seminar on Cicero and Caelius. We are reading the Pro Caelio, Catullus' "Rufus" poems, and the epistolary correspondence between Cicero and Caelius. Pretty standard, downright traditional content for a Classics class.

If you check yes to any of these questions, you are told to delay teaching that material until the Board of Regents meets at the end of February. At their meeting, the Regents will determine whether they consider this material "relevant and necessary".

The form requires the instructor to certify whether the class contains advocacy of sex or race based prejudice, and then separately asks if the class includes teaching about gender or sexual identity. These terms have not been defined.

Texas Tech System restricts race and gender teaching Tech, now the second Texas public university system to add similar teaching restrictions, had earlier directed faculty to follow state and federal guidance recognizing only two sexes.

Thread: This semester at Texas Tech, our new chancellor has required a portal to be created through which a form must be submitted for every course. www.texastribune.org/2025/12/01/t...

Image of a poem by Hannah Eve Levy entitled "The day a poet is murdered by ICE"

This is really powerful.

This is especially funny because the two times I know that a committee was split about hiring me, a female classicist, they hired a white man--because the white man who was retiring didn't want to be replaced by a woman.

ICE pepper sprayed 1 year old gil

ICE pepper-sprayed this 1-year-old girl.

Once at the hospital, the doctor had to call in a poison control specialist.

They had never seen anyone that young pepper sprayed.

Another horrific story.

More details below.

I didn't know this and am very happy to learn it!

“Ticking Time Bomb”: A Pregnant Mother Kept Getting Sicker. She Died After She Couldn’t Get an Abortion in Texas. Walker is one of several women ProPublica found with underlying health conditions who died when they couldn’t access abortions.

This boy shouting "I need you!" as he performed CPR on his dead mom broke me. His mother died for the crime of being pregnant in Texas. www.propublica.org/article/texa...

If you were looking for the classical content in the Epstein emails, here it is. Terence, not Catullus!

This is heartbreaking.

Yes, I agree - it should be easily accessible somewhere

Oh, and Brown as well. If the list doesn't exist already, maybe we can crowd source it in this thread.

Thanks! In addition to those two, Duke is also not accepting students this year. We're in for a rough cycle.

Classics folks: is there a list somewhere of which grad programs aren't accepting applications this year? I want to be able to advise my students accordingly!

Several years ago, we saw a truck in New Mexico (NM plates, too) with bumper stickers for both the Yankees AND the Patriots. One of the worst things I've seen, tbh.

Re-upping this thread on classical studies under fascist regimes.

Yes! It totally blew my mind.

I am shook that it's been twenty years, aka the lament of the middle aged. I wouldn't be the scholar I am now without the medieval courses I took.